Alternative Medicine

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• QWhat is the Slow Medicine Wheel of Health?

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  A Dr. Michael B. Finkelstein, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  Remember this nursery school song? The knee bone is connected to the thigh bone; the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.
  
  These simple lyrics actually reflect a sophisticated understanding of health, namely, that everything -- muscles and nerves, bodies and minds, people and planet – are connected in a way that has a domino effect on the other.
  
  Slow Medicine recognizes this "interdependence" and guides individuals in connecting the dots between all the moving parts of our lives.
  
  The Slow Medicine Wheel of Health has seven spokes:

  • physical (play tennis, practice yoga)
  • mental-emotional (recite positive affirmations, practice guided imagery)
  • your relationship to others (go out with friends for dinner, play games with your kids)
  • your relationship to the natural world (hike through a forest, watch birds in your backyard)
  • your community (attend a neighborhood block party, join a networking group for your profession)
  • your relationship to the Divine (attend services at a local spiritual center, pray at home)
  • your life’s purpose work (teach children, volunteer at a homeless shelter)

  Consider how to nurture each spoke of your personal wheel of health by doing something you love.
  
  Each spoke is a moving part with the potential to activate the body's natural (innate) ability to heal itself.  Each one is also dynamic. That means a single spoke can interact with and amplify the power of the other spokes.
  
  In other words, your wellness is not only the sum total of each spoke, or each moving part, but it is also the united relationship between all of them.
  
  So, if you meditate in your living room, on your own, you may calm and clear your mind and enhance your mental-emotional health. But if you go with a friend to a group meditation in a local park, you can do all that and possibly enhance your relationship to others (your friend), your relationship to nature (the park) and your relationship to community (the meditation group). In other words, you are amplifying the positive impact on your health.
• QWhat are the risks involved with ear stapling?

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  A Dr. Daniel Hsu, DAOM , Alternative & Complementary Medicine, answered

  

  Ear stapling utilizes non-sterile staples, which can cause inflammation and infections in the delicate cartilage of the ear where they are placed. In this video, oriental medicine expert Daniel Hsu, DAOM, explains the many risks of ear stapling.

  

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  What Are the Risks Involved with Ear Stapling?
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• QWhat is ear seeding (ear beading)?

  1 Answer

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  A Dr. Daniel Hsu, DAOM , Alternative & Complementary Medicine, answered

  

  Ear seeds, or ear beads, are actual mustard seeds that are treated and placed on tape, which are then pressed on acupuncture points on the ear. Watch as oriental medicine expert Daniel Hsu, DAOM, explains the benefits of using ears seed or beads.

  

  Find out more about this DVD:

  What Is Ear Seeding (Ear Beading)?
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• QWhat is light therapy?

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  A RealAge answered

  Light therapy is the controlled use of specific kinds of therapeutic light to treat certain medical conditions, especially depression associated with winter-onset seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and the skin condition psoriasis.
  
  For example, to treat winter-onset SAD, light therapy might involve the use of a special light box (which usually emits up to 10,000 lux)or wearing a light visor for about 30 minutes each day throughout the fall and winter, when you're most likely to be depressed. Winter-onset SAD can also be treated with a “dawn simulator," a light activated by a timer that turns on early in the morning and gradually increases in brightness, mimicking a sunrise and allowing your body to wake up naturally, without using an alarm. If light therapy helps, your doctor may suggest continuing it until enough sunlight is available, typically in the springtime. Stopping light therapy too soon can result in a return of symptoms.
  
  Light therapy is also used to treat psoriasis, a condition in which skin cells grow at an accelerated rate, causing a scaly build-up of cells on the skin. Doctors may prescribe a special kind of light that emits ultraviolet B (UVB) wavelengths (similar to those found in sunlight). UVB penetrates the skin and slows the growth of affected skin cells. Treatment involves exposing the skin to an artificial UVB light source for a set length of time on a regular schedule. This treatment is administered in a medical setting or at home under a doctor's supervision. No one should attempt to treat psoriasis by using a tanning salon or other devices on their own.
• QWhat is Vastu Shastra?

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  A Dr. Kulreet K. Chaudhary, MD , Neurology, answered

  

  Vastu Shastra is related to ayurvedic medicine; it looks at how the home is impacting the lives of the inhabitants. In this video, neurology and ayurvedic expert Kulreet Chaudhary, MD, explains this science, and how it's connected to feng shui.

  

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  What Is Vastu Shastra?
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• QWhat are the benefits of adaptive rehabilitation?

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  A Riverside Community Hospital answered

  Physical activity is important for everyone to promote better heart health, which is why adaptive rehabilitation programs are so important. With adaptive rehabilitation and recreation programs, individuals with disabilities can not only improve their physical health, but also enjoy an enhanced quality of life.
  
  For many people, not having enough time or not finding exercise enjoyable are common reasons for a lack of physical activity. For individuals with disabilities, the reasons can be much more complex. 
• QWhat is intravenous chelation therapy?

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  A Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answered

  You may have read about a development called chelation therapy - basically an arterial Drano. In the process, a solution is injected into your veins, and it is supposed to bind with the calcium that hardens arterial plaque and subsequently clear it through your urine.

  The theory that chelation therapy works to diminish the calcium in your plaque has never been proven, but there's anecdotal evidence that it can help clear arteries in some people. It's very enticing but still experimental. An even better Drano promises to be a new drug that is a super HDL called alpha-1-Milano. Look for it in the next few years if it passes the scientifically rigorous clinical trials.

• QWhy should I tell my doctor about alternative medicines?

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  A Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  It's vital that you tell your doctor about the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments you're using. We know from research that about three of four patients are using some form of alternative medicine right now, whether it's nightly prayer or gulping the herb yohimbe in hopes of better bedroom sessions. But how many patients tell us that they're using alternative medicines? Fewer than one in five. That rankles us, because...

  1. We're in the healing business and detest being kept in the dark in case you've found a great thing.
  2. We could send you home with a prescription that could send you to the morgue.

  So tell your doctor! Sure, you may not feel that it's critical to call me on a Saturday and say, "Doc, I forgot to mention that I say five Hail Mary's every night" (though we'd actually appreciate knowing that for academic sake, since prayer is being clinically studied). We're chiefly concerned with anything you swallow, inject, absorb, or undergo that has a physical component to it, obviously.
  
  But we understand your reluctance to tell us; most patients think we'll just scoff at an alternative treatment, even if we don't know a thing about it. Those patients are sometimes right, if they're seeing one of the more rigid doctors with a dusty diploma. Other physicians will react with great interest, they'd find.
• QAre practitioners of alternative medicine licensed?

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  A Dr. Michael Roizen, MD , Internal Medicine, answered

  While many practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) were once able to work without licensing or proof of formal training (at least by U.S. standards), that's no longer the case for many of them.
  
  As doctors and smart patients discovered that specific alternative treatments were highly effective (tugging them closer to the mainstream medicine category), medical groups created credentialing standards for them. Requirements vary from state to state, so the health commissioner's office in your state should be able to tell you the credentialing standards for specific alternative medicines and therapies.

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